P-Cards, V-Cards, Payables…What’s The Bottom Line?

The bottom lines is that you’re likely leaving money (big money) on the table if you’re not “right-sizing” your accounts payables (AP). You likely have a mix of suppliers and pay them in a variety of ways — check, automated clearing house (ACH), purchase card (P-Card), and/or virtual card (V-Card).

It’s not uncommon for companies to pay primarily by check or ACH. The problem is that these are the two most expensive means in which to pay your suppliers. Your bank likely offers a P-Card option to pay your suppliers. Although there are benefits to P-Cards, they also leave you open for potential misuse and fraud. V-Cards are an emerging technology that the big banks are starting to offer that give you all the benefits of a P-Card, but reduce or completely eliminate the risk of potential misuse and fraud.

Aside from the reduction or complete elimination of misuse and fraud, a key benefit of a V-Card platform is if you can flip the majority of your payables volume from check and/or ACH over to V-Cards you can earn significant returns in monthly or quarterly recurring rebates from the card providers. In addition to the rebates, you are driving significant cost savings by shifting volume from the most costly payment methods of check and ACH over to a much less expensive V-Card solution. These rebates are nothing to sneeze at. They can be in the thousands of dollars that can have a significant impact to your bottom line. The trick to maximizing your rebates is in the enrollment and participation of your suppliers. The big banks are now offering V-Cards, but are weak on supplier enrollment and participation. Their supplier enrollment is typically in the single digits. This is important because your rebates are based on the transaction volume you can drive through the V-Card platform. It’s is for this reason that third-party V-Card providers may be a better option to maximize your returns.

Unruh Enterprises has partnered with a best-in-class third-party V-Card provider that offers all the same benefits of the big banks, but has a streamlined and proven supplier enrollment and match process that results in double-digit supplier participation averaging more than 20%. Your bank may offer a V-Card program, but you could be leaving serious money on the table by not going with a proven third-party provider that focuses on supplier enrollment. Supplier enrollment and match is the secret sauce, and also the weak link with the big banks that could cost you thousands of dollars. Our strategic partner has more that 18,000 clients on their platform with more than 1,000,000 participating suppliers. They have the industry’s best supplier match and enrollment process making it very easy to enroll your suppliers if they are not already participating in the program.

Start saving and earning money today by completing our Request for Information form. If you’re looking for a way to fund your strategic CapEx or OpEx projects, look no further than digging the money out of your own “couch cushions“!